Page 181 - Feasibility Study of New Media Technology on Constructing Online Public Sphere

Chapter 6. The Xiamen PX plant event

Ethical codes for media professionals appear to be the least important factor for

media practitioners in China. As explained by Interviewee 6:
‘under the big picture of government control, there is no complete freedom of
speech for media service providers. They can take advantage of technology to gain ex-
tra space in covering social events, but it does not represent a guaranteed safe and free
environment’ .
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Licenses for news report are difficult to get for internet companies as are journalist
certificates for those who work in the cyberspace. The government’s strategy is to con-
trol information so that few practitioners are empowered with legal rights to perform as

professionals.
It is said that the success of Bullog is because of the scarcity of truth and trust in
the physical world. Bullog accidentally undertook the function of information gathering
and dissemination in the PX plant case. Unlike other media sites which automatically
censored content in this area, it used a ‘wait-and-see’ approach to temporarily maintain

the information. Many journalists in the print media often sought valuable information
and alternative perspectives from the users in Bullog.
Bullog did once receive a compulsory order because of sensitive articles published

on the site. A government department asked another founder, Huang, to produce a letter
assuring the government that no more sensitive content would appear on Bullog. Huang
considered this to be a formality and no actual harm was done to Bullog itself. This site
was constantly praised for its contribution to gathering elite bloggers and opinion lead-
ers. However, Bullog was closed in 2013. Luo denied the closure was due to political

pressure or operation cost, it was simply that too few people used blogs anymore.

6.4.2.3 QQ group (Tencent instant messaging platform): connecting netizens’ com-
munication from the real world to the virtual world

Dong (2008) used the term ‘civic engagement’ to describe the phenomenon in
which individuals in civil society voluntarily participate in social activities or public af-
fairs. It is an opportunity for citizens to become engaged in the implementation of pub-

37 Translation provided by the author.

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